WARNING: This story details allegations of child abuse.
In messages to his wife, Becky Hamber referred to herself as “Officer Hamber” and said one of the children in her and Brandy Cooney’s care was “in Hamber Cooney prison.”
Those texts from November 14, 2021 were a set of many that are shown in the women’s trial for first-degree murder on Tuesday at the courthouse in Milton, Ont.
That was at least the second time the women referred to themselves as jailers of two brothers they were trying to adopt, and Cooney referred to her father, who also lived with them and the brothers, as “Officer Cooney” in December 2020.
The brothers are known as LL and JL for CBC’s coverage of this trial, as their identities are protected under a standard publication ban. LL was 12 years old when he died in the care of Hamber and Cooney on December 21, 2022. His younger brother, JL, is now 13 years old.
The Burlington, Ont., women pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in LL’s death in the trial that began in mid-September in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. They filed the same plea related to charges of confinement, assault with a weapon (zip ties), and failure to provide the necessities of life to JL. The Crown argues Hamber and Cooney abused and neglected Indigenous children.
Crown attorney Monica MacKenzie showed the court more audio recordings taken from the women’s electronic devices and showed multiple sets of text message conversations.
Halton Regional Police Service Sgt. Julie Powers testified for the second day in a row. On Monday, the officer who led the investigation into Hamber and Cooney said police were able to extract data from the couple’s phones and IP addresses.announcement following their arrests in February 2024. SomeThese are recordings that the women took or saved from a security camera system they used to monitor the children.
Court hears women discuss restriction of children’s freedoms as a result of behavior
In an 80-minute recording played by MacKenzie, the women scolded the oldest boy, LL, for “urinating and defecating” himself. One of the women told the 11-year-old boy that he was “choosing” to do it in a misguided attempt to get what he wanted and that he was “years away from having free access to the bathroom and the house.”
They referred to him standing in his room all day and said his furniture had been taken away due to “unsafe choices.”
The trial has been told that paramedics found LL unconscious, soaked and lying on the basement floor of his room, which was locked from the outside. Witnesses said he was so severely malnourished and emaciated that he appeared to be six years old, although he was twice that age. He died shortly after in the hospital.
The women’s respective lawyers argue that the couple went to great lengths to care for children with high needs and significant behavioral problems, with little help from the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) and service providers.
They say, for example, that women had to confine children to prevent them from rand dressed them in zippered wetsuits to prevent them from peeing all over the house. The defense also says the children would harm themselves or others.
The single-judge trial before Judge Clayton Conlan has heard from witnesses including first responders, medical experts, teachers, therapists, doctors and JL himself. The trial is expected to continue at least until mid-December.
In recording, women tell LL that he will have a good life if he listens to them
In the 80-minute recording, one of the women told LL that he was “worthy of love and happiness,” but that he needed to trust that the couple knew what was best for him.
They told LL that she had a traumatic upbringing in the foster care system, but that it wasn’t her fault and they wanted her to move past that. Otherwise, they said, he would never have a family of his own.
Most of the boys’ responses in the recordings are unintelligible, as if they were far from the microphone.
In a 20-minute audio file dated December 28, 2020, the women can be heard scolding JL, who was I was eight years old at the time.
“You made our life hell for several years,” one of the women said, claiming she broke her finger during a tantrum.
“I’m mad at you for breaking his finger, so what can I break you?” one of the women asks.
They say he told them he wanted to die and they asked him about it.
“You’re not willing to try. You just want to die. That’s stupid,” one of them said.
“We love you no matter what,” but “my liking for you fluctuates,” one of the women said. “We don’t necessarily like you.”
The other chimed in: “I don’t do it at all.”
The recording ended with one of the women telling the boy that at night he should make himself as comfortable as possible “on a wooden board” and say to himself: “I am safe. I am loved. I am a Hamber-Cooney.”
The trial heard that children slept in bags on cots, sometimes zipped into tents. The defense has said this was done to prevent the children from getting hurt or running away.
Women told children they ‘sacrificed’ their bodies to previous foster family
In three audio recordings heard by the trial, the women told LL and JL that they “sacrificed” their bodies to their former foster family to get what they wanted.
He The trial heard that LL and JL accused their former foster family. of abus that investigators later deemed unfounded.
In court, JL said those allegations were never true and that Hamber and Cooney had ordered him to repeat them.
In the texts and recordings, the women mentioned things that came up in the trial, including the children eating puree and urinating or defecating outside the bathroom.
“I don’t give a shit about pureeing your food until you’re 18,” Hamber said in a recorded conversation with JL. “If you didn’t like baby food, you wouldn’t act like a baby.”
She also made reference to him wearing a diaper and told him he should be able to control himself and his body.
JL previously testified that he could hold his bladder and bowels, but sometimes women wouldn’t let him leave their room and he would have accidents.
MacKenzie also played a video in which Powers described Hamber taking a blueberry from LL while crying and accused her of “withholding breakfast,” repeatedly saying “it’s not fair” and “I’m hungry.”
In October, a The pediatrician testified that LL was severely malnourished. in the days before his death. Whether the couple fed him enough has been a central question in the trial.
Women degraded children in text messages
In text messages shown in court, the women frequently insulted LL and JL
In an exchange with her father on July 26, 2020, Cooney said LL had a nightmare about dying alone.
“Complaining loser cry baby, poor me, owww,” he wrote. “I faked my sympathy for the idiot.”
In a text message exchange on September 24, 2021, the women said LL had a rash caused by not drying herself properly.
“If I were them, I would be disgusted with myself,” Hamber wrote.
MacKenzie then showed a group selfie taken six days later of the couple posing with JL outside. The women wear orange T-shirts and hold an “Every Child Matters” sign.
The trial will resume on Wednesday.
If you are affected by this report, you can seek mental health support through resources in your province or territory.
